When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived in a Maria-devastated
Puerto Rico Friday, he brought with him a half-dozen electrical
generators – coveted assistance for an island that officials
estimate could be without power for months. If New York’s governor
saw fit to demonstrate solidarity with Puerto Rico, it is because
of the sizable and well-established Puerto Rican population in New
York – one that continues to grow as young people with US passports
abandon the poverty-stricken and financially strapped island.

After a hurricane, earthquake, or a terrorist attack, artists
and performers are usually not first responders. A good example was
Telemundo’s four-hour telethon on Sept. 24 that brought out stars
such as Jennifer Lopez on behalf of the victims of hurricanes
Maria, Harvey, Irma, as well as the Mexican earthquakes. “The
healing power of the arts is a real thing,” says Jake Speck,
executive director of Houston’s A.D. Players.

For two days after Mexico’s 7.1 earthquake toppled scores of
buildings, killing what’s now believed to be nearly 300 people, the
country was captivated by the story of Frida Sofía, a 12-year-old
on the brink of a miraculous rescue. Frida Sofía didn’t exist.
Recommended: How much do you know about Mexico?

In a bright and boxy photo studio in South Sudan’s capital, an
industrial printer is spitting out a glossy stack of exotic
vacation snapshots. Recommended: Think you know Africa? “Couches,
grand pianos, far away houses – these are the things people most
like to have the backgrounds in their pictures,” says Tsedeke
Abebaw, the owner of On Time Photo Studios in downtown Juba, barely
glancing up from the computer screen in front of him.

A man wipes off the headlights of the L.L. Bean Bootmobile in
the parking lot at the facility where the famous outdoor boot is
made. L.L. Bean is pushing back against a boycott led by a group
urging consumers not to shop at retailers that support
President-elect Donald Trump after it was revealed that Linda Bean,
heir of the Maine-based company’s founder, had donated to a
political action committee that helped elect Trump. “We are deeply
troubled by the portrayal of L.L. Bean as a supporter of any
political agenda,” Shawn Gorman, L.L. Bean’s executive chairman,
said in a statement posted to Facebook late Sunday.

Trump tours a Carrier factory in Indianapolis, Dec. 1, 2016.
Chuck Jones, the union leader who claims President-elect Donald
Trump lied to Carrier employees while touting a deal to keep jobs
in the U.S., says he started receiving harassing phone calls a half
hour after Trump slammed him on Twitter. “I’ve been doing this job
for 30 years,” Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local
1999, told CNN on Thursday morning.